Alibi V.16 No.43 • Oct 25-31, 2007

Alice Cooper on marrying strippers. Horror dares that made us wet our pants. How a professional investigates the supernatural.

By Marisa Demarco

The best Halloween costumes are the ones no one can identify. At least that's what I tell myself. Once I was a shadow. Once I was water. Once I was the little prince from "Katamari Damacy." Once I was the embodiment of a Gemini. And no one got it. Never. Not a single person. But at least I didn't dress as a pirate (sorry to all my friends who are usually pirates for Halloween). Maybe this year, I'll go as a sexy wench with cat whiskers and devil's ears and a cape with a hood on it and fairy wings and an Elvira wig and a witch hat. When people ask me what I am, I'll say, "a cliché."

Alice Cooper, that is ...

By Jessica Cassyle Carr

Alice Cooper is a man of contradictions: A subversive performer with a golf habit. A recovered alcoholic who owns a bar. A heavy metal rocker with a strong sense of family values. During a phone interview between the legendary master of horrors and frights and the Alibi, Alice Cooper talked about everything from reality shows to miracles. We didn't have space for the full conversation, so we gathered the most choice quotes for your incongruous reading pleasure.

You don't want to sass off to the Dark One

By Marisa Demarco and Jessica Cassyle Carr

This was Marisa's big idea. It was based off a 2005 Alibi article in which Music and Food Editor Laura Marrich dared herself to stay overnight in a supposedly haunted East Central motel room. This time the plan was to harvest scary dares from people around the office then execute them with 49 percent skepticism and 51 percent spirit of metaphysical adventure. Because other staffers were too afraid to take part, I was the chosen accomplice. Out of numerous spooky dares, we picked a graveyard séance (for which Staff Writer Simon McCormack provided assistance), summoning Bloody Mary in a dark bathroom while drinking Bloody Marys, dining at a haunted restaurant and playing the Ouija board while listening to Slayer in a haunted room. I brought my camera to document the endeavors, some of which were unamazing, others legitimately frightening--enough so that the two of us had a hard time sleeping that night. (JCC)

Last month it was announced that Lakeshore Entertainment would be shooting their new sci-fi action flick Game at the freshly constructed Albuquerque Studios. It sounded like a tight fit, what with Lionsgate shooting the superhero flick The Spiritthere at the same time. Apparently, things have spilled out into the streets now, resulting in one of the most conspicuous film shoots in Albuquerque history. The $51 million production is busily constructing an entire cityscape in Downtown Albuquerque. If you’ve spent any time in the area recently, you may have noticed the massive structure going up around Silver and Third. This life-sized futuristic city block will soon be crowded with up to 5,000 extras. (That’s how many producers were hoping for according to a recent casting call, anyway.)

Seriocomic buddy flick laughs at life after wartime

By Devin D. O’Leary

What’s gotten into Richard Gere lately? I don’t mean that in an insulting way, either. The guy looks tan, rested and ready to make some movies. Ever since his sly, self-mocking turn in 2002’s Chicago, the fiftysomething actor has been delivering some fine, unselfconscious performances in some unexpected little films. These days, the guy seems less interested in conquering Hollywood American Gigolo-style and more interested in just having a hell of a good time on the job. He also, oddly enough, seems somewhat obsessed with journalists.

Intimate family comedy finds the realism in romance

By Devin D. O’Leary

Steve Carell almost (almost, mind you) makes up for Evan Almightywith his latest film, a low-key romantic comedy so darn likable not even the presence of Dane Cook can ruin it. In fact, simply labeling it a “romantic comedy” is a bit of an insult. Though the film is both romantic and comedic, viewers will have a hard time getting simple genre labels to stick.

Abortion documentary examines both passionate sides of the issue

By Devin D. O’Leary

Filmmaker Tony Kaye (American History X) chose to shoot his new documentaryLake of Firein stark black and white. This artistic decision highlights the clear-cut feelings of people on either side of the film’s central issue, abortion. For a great many people, this is a black-and-white issue, a case of right and wrong, of moral and immoral, with nothing resembling a middle ground.

“Pushing Daisies” on ABC

By Devin D. O’Leary

So far, the fall 2007 TV season hasn’t exactly distinguished itself with its originality. Primetime television is still a realm inhabited largely by cops, lawyers and doctors. It’s no surprise, then, that a show like “Pushing Daisies” would stand out like a sore thumb. A giant, lovable, entirely welcome sore thumb.

The Week in Sloth

Enjoy the freedom of Halloween while you can. Not the freedom of trick-or-treating (… you’re getting a little old for that anyway, aren’t you?), nor the freedom of buying a sack of fun-sized candy bars at Walgreens “for the kids,” only to eat them all by yourself while ogling other people’s neighborhoods from your car (uh … never mind). I’m talking about the freedom to dance like a complete idiot because, this night of all magical nights, your true identity is completely obscured by a shame-masking costume. At long last, you’re free to Macarena! Try it out at one of these quasi-underground dance parties.

A fraction of Minus the Bear talks about Halloween and leaving New Mexico

By Jessica Cassyle Carr

With progressing popularity, a handful of albums already under its belt, a brand-new album—Planet of Ice, released last August on Suicide Squeeze—and a world tour, Seattle indie band Minus the Bear has come of age. You may have even caught a glimpse of the band on MTV. Via e-mail, two fifths of the band, Santa Fe natives Alex Rose and Cory Murchy, tackle varying topics for Alibi readers, some music-related, some totally irrelevant.

Abandoned in Albuquerque, he discovered how to play keyboards, write songs and run marathons

By Marisa Demarco

He's the guy at the rock club with asymmetrical eye makeup and oversized knee-high boots, the animated keyboard player for Shoulder Voices and Unit 7 Drain, the dude with an angel and devil on his shoulders, both manufactured at home.

Vocalist brings The New Bossa Nova to the Outpost

By Mel Minter

Every so often, the right song meets the right singer at the right time, producing a transcendent performance that marries them forever. Think “Come Fly with Me” and here comes Frank Sinatra. “Strange Fruit”—Billy Holiday. “Respect”—Aretha Franklin.

Belladonna Burlesque gets even freakier at this weekend-long skin spooktacular, featuring the debut teases of Miss Scarlet Grace. This Friday and Saturday at Guild Cinema. $8 at the Guild or Burning Paradise video. (LM)

Controversy over school club divides the Farmington community

Words. We depend on them as much as they depend on us. Once merely tools invented to give tangible life to our thoughts, we have since joined them in a long, lazy dance of co-evolution. They have helped shape our art, science, culture, beliefs and, in many ways, our humanity. We have devoted ourselves to them in our books, laws and livelihoods. And today the freedom of words, one of our most precious and powerful of creations, is under attack.

Last year's snowstorm means what for 2007? How much does it cost businesses to serve liquor in our state? Which famous actors are working in New Mexico? How many animals that see the inside of a city shelter ever see the outside again?

You gonna drink that?

--On Thursday, Oct. 18, Village Voice Media Executive Editor Michael Lacey and VVM Chairman and CEO Jim Larkin were arrested for publishing information about subpoenas that had been filed against them in their Phoenix New Timesalternative newsweekly.

Howling for wolves in Albuquerque

By Jim Scarantino

During “Wolf Awareness Week” you could ride a bicycle through a gigantic balloon of a red and white wolf. If you entered at the back, you emerged through the beast’s fangs, just like the UNM football team taking the field.

At the Oct. 15 Council meeting, an audit requested by Councilor Brad Winter revealed that statistics kept on the red-light camera program were too confusing to establish whether crashes had increased or decreased due to the cameras. The only thing more confusing was the program's cash flow. Councilors unanimously passed a compromise bill on jail funding, directing the city and county to jointly approach the State Legislature. Councilor Don Harris' bills extending a moratorium on cell phone tower construction and deleting a study of a road through Tijeras Arroyo both passed unanimously. Councilor Michael Cadigan was excused.

The annual burning of El Kookooee incinerates fear and defines culture in the South Valley

By Marisa Demarco

El Cucui: He's the monster under your bed, the shadowy figure parents use to frighten their children into obedience. "If you talk back/don't eat your dinner/don't stay in bed, Cucui's going to get you," they might say. Author Rudolfo Anaya likens the beast to another local ghost. "The parents used to scare little children into obeying and being respectful, much like La Llorona, the crying woman."

Dateline: England—Charles Law, a 48-year-old self-employed financial advisor from Borehamwood, promised a British judge he would shave off his oversized Edwardian-style mustache after assaulting a 13-year-old boy who teased him about the facial accessory. St. Albans Crown Court heard how Law pretended to have a knife and lashed out at a group of teenagers who made fun of his mustache on Christmas Eve last year. One of the boys was also kicked in the knee. The court was told that Law had been in trouble before for “mustache-related incidents.” Julia Flanagan, who defended Law, admitted her client has a tendency to overreact when teased, but assured a judge that he would shave off the offending ’stache. Law was given a two-year conditional release and ordered to pay 75 pounds ($150) damages to the three boys for their “frightening” ordeal. “I have mixed feelings about his decision to give up his mustache,” Judge John Plumpstead told BBC News. “It is plainly a matter of pride, and it must have taken a great deal of time and work to develop.”

The Southwest’s rich history makes the region a perfect location for supernatural folklore. And Halloween is a perfect time to hear its tales. Nasario Garcia will be reading from Brujerias: Stories of Witchcraft and the Supernatural in the American Southwest and Beyond in English and Spanish at Bookworks (4022 Rio Grande NW, 544-8139) on Tuesday, Oct. 30, at 7 p.m.

A glimpse at the Duke City's haunted theaters and superstitions

By Zak Schlegel

The legend, as told by Dennis Potter, technical manager at the KiMo Theatre, goes like this: On a Thursday afternoon in August of 1951, a 6-year-old boy named Bobby and a group of friends attended a Western movie at the now historic Downtown theater. While seated in the balcony, little Bobby became startled and began to descend to the lobby. When he was halfway down the stairs, a water heater in the wall exploded beside the step Bobby was standing on, sending him and eight other victims to the hospital with serious injuries. Bobby did not survive.

Alibi V.16 No.42 • Oct 18-24, 2007

Depending on who you ask, the quality of life for Albuquerque residents near some of the city's train tracks may be improving over the next few months. But State Sen. Michael Sanchez doesn't want to wait that long to try to save lives in other parts of the state.

Up-and-coming arts organization hopes to get the word (and the picture) out

By Devin D. O’Leary

Let’s get this out of the way quickly: Comic books are for kids. But they’re not just for kids. They’re also for adults. And seniors. And teenagers. In India, a nation plagued by a 35 percent adult illiteracy rate and 22 official languages, educational comic books are used to teach everything from health to science to contemporary culture. In Japan, phone-book-sized weekly manga entertain salarymen on their long train rides to work. Around the world, cartoon-illustrated tracts are employed to convert nonbelievers to the born-again teachings of Jack Chick. In Hollywood, popular graphic novels are used as fodder for just about every big-budget movie that hits theaters. Comic books are for everybody. That’s one of the messages the New Mexico-based arts organization 7000 BC is trying to get across.

Do you have what it takes to make your own comic—in just one day?

By Devin D. O’Leary

“Man, I love 24 Hour Comics Day!” Those are the words of Enrique “Ryk” Martinez, who has participated in every 24 Hour Comics Day since its inception in 2004. “It's like extreme cartooning. For my style, it's perfect. I just pick up my pen and go for it.”

A look at some of 7000 BC’s illustrated offerings

The Albuquerque Peace and Justice Center (located, as always, at 202 Harvard SE) will present the latest in its People Before Profit Film & Lecture Series this Thursday, Oct. 18, beginning at 7 p.m. The film will be Peace One Day, a documentary about Jeremy Gilley’s personal quest to persuade the United Nations to officially recognize an annual Peace Day with a fixed calendar date. Gilley’s efforts helped establish the annual day of global ceasefire and nonviolence as Sept. 21. After the film, the guest speaker will be Jody Oyas, state coordinator of the Campaign for U.S. Department of Peace & Nonviolence. This event is free and open to the public, athough donations to the Peace and Justice Center will be welcome.

One legend ends with a bang and a wimper in this character-driven Western

By Devin D. O’Leary

Following hot on the horse tracks of 3:10 to Yuma,The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford would seem to argue convincingly for the healthy revival of the Hollywood Western. Instead, comparing and contrasting these two films seems to prove that “The Western” isn’t so much a genre as a backdrop. Whereas 3:10 to Yuma was a rootin’, tootin’, shootin’ cowboy pic with a hint of moral quandary for flavor, TAoJJbtCRF (I’m gonna run out of words in this review if I keep typing it) is a sober rumination on fame, fortune and infamy with nary a gunfight in sight.

The thrill is not gone in this gritty crime drama

By By Devin D. O’Leary

Casey Affleck is having a hell of a year. Actually, he’s having a hell of a weekend, starring in two major films being released this Friday: [url]http://jessejamesmovie.warnerbros.com/[/url]The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Gone Baby Gone.The Assassination ... features far and away the showier of the two roles for Affleck, but he comes off as a credible leading man in Gone Baby Gone nonetheless.

Sometimes dead is better

By Devin D. O’Leary

This year’s TV dead pool has taken an interesting, almost supernatural twist. Seemingly dead shows are being allowed to remain on the air, their still-ambulatory corpses stinking up the primetime schedule.

American Buffalo at the Vortex Theatre

By Steven Robert Allen

Business and friendship often make for a putrid mix, especially if the “business” in question is the kind where you need to put the word in quotes to make yourself understood. It’s hard enough to make friends with honest people. Friendship among thieves must be close to impossible.

Sherman Alexie returns to Albuquerque to promote his book for young adults

By Tom Gibbons

The novels of Native American writer Sherman Alexie often concern themselves with the matter of race, a difficult proposition no matter how carefully it's approached—even if it’s in the guise of a book for young adults. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, recently named a finalist for the 2007 National Book Awards in Young People's Literature, is Alexie's first venture into this brand of storytelling. Like his earlier novels Reservation Blues and Indian Killer, Alexie's protagonist, a Spokane High Schooler named Junior, is caught between two worlds: that of reservation life and that of the white man's.

Well, it's that time of year again, and while October is the harbinger of many thrilling events, Albuquerque The Magazine’s fourth annual "Hot Singles" issue (and my subsequent third annual review of it) could be the most thrilling of all. According to the magazine, Albuquerque was made for romance; and if that's true, this year's "Hot Singles" issue once again addresses our city's alleged purpose in the most ridiculous way possible. Why poor citizens subject themselves to this yearly shenanigan is a question only they can answer. Why Albuquerque The Magazine continues to pass this intellectually insulting editorial content off on the public is a question best not considered, lest you spontaneously combust.

Rivals square off in second annual derby championship

By Simon McCormack

After a season of bone-crunching, high-scoring Duke City Derby action, the undefeated Doomsdames will take on the Derby Intelligence Agency in the championship game that will decide who's crowned queen of the rink.

On NPR a few days ago, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was quoted saying something that hit me with one of those “Aha!” moments. We all experience them from time to time—those slivers of insight that slip a whole gearbox of mental cogs into place and explain neatly and concisely something that may have been puzzling us for a long time.

Dateline: Nicaragua—Villagers living along Central America’s Mosquito Coast have found a new source of income: fishing for the tons of free cocaine that regularly wash up on the region’s remote shores. According to a report on the guardian.co.uk website, the bags of cocaine are coming from Colombian speedboats on “narco-routes,” which drop the drugs overboard if intercepted by U.S. and Nicaraguan patrols. Currents carry the bags to shore where people living in villages such as Karpwala and Tasbapauni find it. According to the report, locals are offered up to $4,000 a kilo for the lost cocaine—seven times less than the U.S. street value—by Colombian traffickers. “They consider it a blessing from god. You see people all day just walking up and down the beaches keeping a lookout at sea,” Louis Perez, the police chief from Bluefields, the main port on Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, was quoted as saying. The local church even has a shiny new floor thanks to a donation from fisherman Ted Hayman, who reportedly found 220 kilograms of cocaine, guardian.co.uk reported. Mr. Hayman has also converted his shack into a three-story mansion with iron gates and a satellite dish from drug fishing money.

New Mexico Django Fest swings with three days of gypsy jazz

By Laura Marrich

In the universe of guitar mastery, Django Reinhardt is the brightest star in his own corner of the cosmos. And, as is usually the case with legends, there's plenty of fantastic lore swirling around Reinhardt's brilliant but brief life, which spanned from 1910 to 1953.

Come and get your heart set on fire

By Simon McCormack

With her well-established acting career on hold, Juliette Lewis is ordering off the multi-medium entertainment menu. Her main course is Juliette and the Licks, a dirty, sexy, playful, classic rock-rooted quartet featuring Lewis on vocals and former H20 member Todd Morse on guitar. The Licks got Dave Grohl to play drums on their latest release, Four on the Floor, which is the band's most well-rounded offering to date. The Alibi caught up with the band's frontwoman and got her thoughts on her genre-hopping experience.

Roquefort, a bleu-veined ewe’s milk cheese from the French town of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, is widely known as one of the kings of cheese. Of the 500-plus cheeses made in France, this blue bully is certainly one of the most recognizable to the connoisseur and the layman alike. Unfortunately, as with the other kings of cheese (Parmigiano Reggiano,Brie de Meaux and Stilton), Roquefort has been commodified and redefined as tepid sour crumbles that lay atop crappy salads. Like the other big three, it has become a supermarket cheese, which obscures its epic history and goddamn transcendental flavor.

Spice up your wine on chilly nights

By Maren Tarro

After a long summer of broiling in the New Mexico heat, cooler temperatures are finally in the forecast. It’s time to dump that jug of margarita mix down the drain, throw out those Coronas and serve something more seasonal.

Alibi V.16 No.41 • Oct 11-17, 2007

Traveling Smithsonian Exhibit, Key Ingredients: America By Food, at the DeLavy House Museum

By Amy Dalness

America’s culture is food. We sup to socialize. We chow down to celebrate. We stuff ourselves to suppress our flaws. We binge to bring ourselves joy. But what exactly is “American food”? Hamburgers, hot dogs and a well-fed man in a red apron tending a grill in a highly manicured yard is an image that comes to mind. America may not have a cuisine as well-defined as the motherlands many of us spring from, but we do love to eat. And eat. And eat. Key Ingredients: America By Food, a traveling exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution on display at the DeLavy House Museum, shows how what we harvest, prepare and consume defines our melting-pot culture—and just in time for our annual Best of Burque Restaurants poll.

You ate. You voted. We listened.

By Laura Marrich

Welcome back to Best of Burque Restaurants! Inside, you'll discover close to 100 tantalizing categories of the best food in Albuquerque, selected through thousands of votes cast by Alibi readers like you. When you vote in a Best of Burque poll, you're rewarding the best local restaurants with invaluable recognition. Not only that, you're helping to amass an indispensable guide to the best food our city has to offer. Just keep eating and voting, and we'll do the rest. Special thanks to writers Jessica Cassyle Carr, Christie Chisholm, Amy Dalness, Marisa Demarco, Simon McCormack and Maren Tarro for their generous help in reporting the results.

We now present the winners of our Best of Burque Restaurants 2007 poll. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served!

When it comes to this lunchtime staple, the trick is a perfect balance of hot and cold sandwiches to satisfy even the most finicky of appetites. Whether it's a piping-hot, homemade meatball sub or a cold sub with loads of Italian meats and crisp veggies, Baggin's doesn't disappoint. Add an expansive list of sides and the fact that your sandwich invariably comes in a sack-lunch-style paper bag, and it's easy to see why Baggin's comes out on top.

No one likes soggy, greasy tofu. But those searching for brown, crispy cubes of soy bean need look no further than Orchid Thai Cuisine. The tofu appetizer's so fine it'll force haters to thoughtfully munch on a piece, dipped in sweet peanut sauce and say, "Huh. Not bad." Or substitute tofu for almost any flesh-laden dish on the menu. Orchid tied with Flying Star Café in this category, which fries up a mean hunk of tofu. We like it best in the "Buddha bowl" or lo mein.

There is perhaps no other Best of Burque category with more eligible participants, so winning is not an easy task for even the finest of casual dining eateries. Wood oven pizza, an expansive sandwich, salad and soup selection and a dining area consistently packed with locals are Il Vicino's greatest weapons in the fight for category supremacy. And, lest we forget, nothing relaxes the atmosphere like a pint of micro-brewed beer or a glass of fine wine, both available at “the neighbor.”

Our "Best Anything We Forgot" section gives us good ideas for next year's poll, sure, but it shines some light on who are readers are. And judging from your responses, our readers are as horny as they are hungry!

A screening of “Wolf: An Ancient Spirit Returns” will take place at the Lobo Theater (3007 Central NE) on Tuesday, Oct. 16, starting at 7 p.m. The 45-minute documentary, chronicling the return of the gray wolf to Yellowstone, won five Emmy Awards and Best of Category at the EarthVision Environmental Film Festival. Defenders of Wildlife is showing the film as part of the nationally celebrated Wolf Awareness Week, which occurs Oct. 14-20 this year. The screening will be followed by a discussion of the Southwest’s own wolf population with Dave Parson, former lead biologist for the Mexican wolf recovery program, and Lisa Hummon, New Mexico outreach representative for Defenders of Wildlife. This screening/discussion is free and open to the public.

Scarecrows (1988)

By Kurly Tlapoyawa

I gotta be honest here; I have never found scarecrows to be particularly creepy. Now don’t get me wrong, I can see how the image of weather-ravaged scarecrows standing in the middle of lonely fields provides perfect subject matter for horror flicks. But I have always seen them as sympathetic characters, doling out revenge and protecting the weak. Granted, my earliest exposure to scarecrows in film was that dancing dumbass in The Wizard of Oz and the vengeance-seeking, redneck-killing scarecrow featured in the classic made-for-TV flick Dark Night of The Scarecrow. (Remember when there used to be awesome made-for-TV horror flicks like Gargoyles and Don’t Be Afraid of The Dark? Damn, I miss those days.) So I was left with the impression that scarecrows were either stupid or justice-dealing badasses.

Clooney could lead cast to Oscar gold in murky legal drama

By Devin D. O’Leary

After a long, hot summer filled with Transformers, pirates and superheroes, it may finally be time for some honest-to-goodness Academy Award contenders. Michael Clayton, the new legal drama starring George Clooney, has all the earmarks of a year-end, award-bait front-runner. This deadly serious film marks the directorial debut of screenwriter Tony Gilroy (scribbler of all three Bourne films) and boasts the sort of script that actors let go of when someone either pries it from their cold dead fingers or hands them an Oscar--whichever comes first.

“Dirty Sexy Money” on NBC

By Devin D. O’Leary

“Dirty Sexy Money” is like a guilt-free guilty pleasure, a trashy nighttime soap opera so keenly aware of the last 30 years’ worth of nighttime soaps that it’s able to tread that fine line between pitch-perfect recreation and winking parody. Like the first season of “Desperate Housewives” (and none of the subsequent ones), “Dirty Sexy Money” is glitzy, melodramatic, occasionally naughty and full of subversive humor.

The Week in Sloth

The sheer quantity of events and exhibits planned for Los Desaparecidos/The Disappeared makes the collaboration noteworthy—and I'm willing to bet it's quality, too. This three-month-long series of exhibitions, films, readings, lectures, workshops, master classes and panel discussions is based on the lives and artistic works of those affected by a military-controlled Latin America. Los Desaparecidos is the collaborative work of the Disappeared Collaborative Project (DCP)—a regional partnership of nine Santa Fe and Albuquerque art and documentary organizations. The opening event is a conversation between Laurel Reuter, chief curator and founding director of the North Dakota Museum of Art, and Lawrence Weschler, essayist in The Disappeared catalogue and writer for The New Yorker, on Friday, Oct. 12, at the Lensic Theater (211 W. San Francisco, Santa Fe, 505-988-1234) at 7 p.m. The main exhibition of the same name opens on Friday at SITE Santa FE (1606 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, 505-989-1199) with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Also opening (daunting isn't it?) on Friday is Antonio Frasconi and War Paint at The Institute of American Indian Arts Museum (108 Cathedral, Santa Fe, 505-983-8900) with a reception from 5 to 7 p.m. Both exhibits will be on display through Jan. 20, 2008. Keep an eye here for a review of one of these shows soon—I'll be sure to let you know if they're worth the drive to Santa Fe. (Again, I'm betting they are.) For more info until then, visit www.thedisappearedsantafe.org.

New event raises awareness through discomfort

"The Great Firewall"—On Friday, Oct. 5, China enacted a blanket ban on RSS feeds into the country, after curbing access to "Real Simple Syndication" since August. RSS works by gathering and processing news from a large variety of online sources. China has been censoring communication flows for years, but RSS feeds made censorship difficult since they are updated so quickly. (CC)

How does someone sell a business that's losing money without the one asset that makes it valuable? That's what the good people at Scripps Howard are asking themselves, or not asking themselves, about theAlbuquerque Tribune. The Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) between the Trib and the Journalallows the Trib to use the Journal's press, share its building and live off part of the Journal's ad revenue. Without it, the Trib is but a name—and a hardworking, talented staff of about 45 full-time employees.

Albuquerque's economic future could be determined by the cutest of animals

By Jessica Cassyle Carr

Humans have a proclivity toward fawning over cute things. Some scientists hypothesize that our attraction to facial features typical of babies--large eyes, round body, etc.--is an evolved trait crucial to the survival of our helpless spawn. For the same reasons, whether this is innate or a product of socialization, humans love cute animals. And the giant panda, or Ailuropoda melanoleuca, may be the cutest of all.

Dateline: England—Police in Long Eaton, Derbyshire, say a life-sized cardboard cutout of a police officer intended to deter crime has had the opposite effect--the item was stolen last week. Police say the cardboard cutout replica of Police Constable Bob Malloy was intended to deter shoplifters at the local co-op store. Thefts have fallen from 36 per month to just one since PC Malloy’s 2-D doppelganger was introduced two years ago. Unfortunately, a cheeky thief walked out with the cardboard crimestopper. The theft was captured on closed-circuit television, and local officials are confident they will make an arrest. The fake police officer cost nearly $200 to produce.

I keep forgetting to congratulate the winners of this year's State Fair Talent Showcase, which was announced a few weeks ago by the New Mexico Music Commission. That makes me a hot dog. But it's our Best of Burque Restaurants issue, so now seems like as good a time as any to sound the trumpets—with relish! (Sorry.) More than $7,000 in prizes, including band merchandise, gear and recording time, was awarded to the local winners. Why wasn't your band competing, again? (Looks like I'm not the only hot dog here.) Without further ado, here are the victorious bands of 2007. Cheers to them all!

Penelope Houston revisits the early days of punk

By Marisa Demarco

We're not yet at the point in history when I can stop asking this question: What's it like to be a woman in [insert musical genre/profession here]? Penelope Houston, frontwoman of the punk ’77 band The Avengers, says in the early days, there were plenty of women on the scene. "A lot of the bands around Los Angeles and San Francisco had female performers, female musicians and singers. I wasn't the only one around." Still, she says, she would like The Avengers to be compared to other punk rock bands without any reference to gender—period. Houston can't escape an awareness of her sex, but it's not without payoff. "Women starting bands and performing because of The Avengers is always really gratifying to me."

I've got the beet blues. I planted a big load of beets this year—a mixed bag with red, gold and other—and now, what to do with all these beets? I've gotten some advice on steaming little beet cubes to be used in salads and veggie medleys, or for my 8-month-old to eat. I've also seen something on grilling, then peeling, but what else is there?

A new place to pitch your tent

By Jennifer Wohletz

I’ve been harboring an embarrassing secret for a decade. I applied as a server at Hooters and was rejected. Maybe it was my weird, multicolored hair, my sailor mouth or perhaps it was the Corona bottle and Marlboro light I was nursing during my brief job interview, but the manager took one look at me and offered me a position as a cook. I left, my ego crushed like a beer can. But as luck would have it, a TGI Friday’s opened up a few weeks later, and it was like I had found my new home.